Explainer: How we involve you
Our Council makes decisions on behalf of the Kāpiti Coast community every day. Some are small and of little or no interest to most people. Others matter a lot to a lot of people. Your feedback is very important and useful to us, so we reach out and gather feedback in a variety of ways. Here’s a short explainer on when, why and how we engage with you.
Council’s communications and engagement specialists in the ‘Comms Team’ typically lead our efforts to inform and involve you, or we provide advice and support to other teams who do some of this work themselves.
Our aim is to engage early and well. That’s because it gives our decision-makers (usually the elected councillors, but sometimes council officers) the ability to consider the wide range of views and needs of our community, especially those directly affected. We know our community is diverse, and we make a big effort to make it as easy as possible for everyone who wants to have their say.
Yes, we’re covered by the small print too: In Aotearoa New Zealand, local government consultations must follow legal requirements set out in a number of Acts, such as the Local Government Act 2002 (LGA 2002), the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA 1991), the Privacy Act 2020, and the Reserves Act 1977 – to name just a few.
What does ‘engagement’ look like?
We use different levels of engagement for different issues and situations. We carry out three main types:
- informal or early engagement
- formal consultation, and
- the Special Consultative Procedure (SCP).
We also have a formal policy that sets out when and how our community should be engaged in decision-making.
In rare cases, Council may also chose not to engage on a proposal or decision even if it meets the bar set under our Significance and Engagement Policy. Examples of when this might happen include: if a decision is needed urgently, where the likely cost of delay will outweigh the benefits of consultation, if the council already has a solid understanding of the views and preferences of the people affected, if there is a need for confidentiality, or the matter is commercially sensitive.
Here’s a bit more about the three main types of engagement:
This happens early in a project. It’s usually exploratory and more flexible than formal consultation and isn’t required under legislation. For example, we might want to gather ideas for what you’d like to see in a new community facility, or we might want to test what the public would most like to see in a strategy or plan that will later be formally consulted on. We might use tools like a short survey or run a workshop in the community to gather ideas.
Informal engagement often involves ‘drop-in’ sessions. These are not meetings or ‘town halls’ where there is a presentation then Q&As. Instead, people can ‘drop-in’ anytime within the timeframes given and speak informally to staff or elected members one-on-one or in small groups.
We might also do multiple rounds of early engagement. This type of engagement helps us develop options, plans, policies or designs that the Council will make decisions on later.
Formal consultation happens before a specific decision that is to be made by the Council. It’s mandated under legislation, such as the RMA for District Plan changes. The consultation can look different depending on the governing legislation.
This type of consultation is more structured. It might test specific options with you – for example, through a consultation document which asks for your feedback on options.
Under our significance and engagement policy we have to consult with you on big or high impact decisions, but Council can also choose to consult at any time on an issue where there’s likely to be wide community interest, if we want a mandate for something, or simply think would be remiss not to.
Sometimes, we have to follow a ‘Special Consultative Procedure’ (SCP) under section 83 of the Local Government Act 2002. This could be when adopting or amending a Long-term Plan or adopting, amending, or revoking a council bylaw. An SCP usually involves:
- a public notice in the newspaper, on our website, or in an official government publication like The New Zealand Gazette
- a Statement of Proposal which summarises the issue, options, and the Council’s preferred approach
- a minimum one-month public submission period
- councillors must consider all the submissions before they decide
Connect with us
Engagement is an ongoing activity – it’s not ‘one and done’ – and it’s our bread and butter! We try to make it as easy as possible for you to find out what’s going on by using a variety of channels and delivering our news straight to your phone or inbox. We encourage you to sign up to any or all of these:
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We've also made a list of official emergency information sources – see where to get official updates.